Mary Jane is the wife of 6 term Congressman Victor F. Ortega of the First District of La Union, a former Mayor of the City of San Fernando, La Union from 1998-2007, the first Filipina and Asian to receive the UN Scroll of Honour Award for her advocacy for the empowerment of women and her commitment to the city development strategy, multi-awarded and member of the UN Advisory Council of Local Authorities (UNACLA), UN Steering Committee on Safer Cities, UN Reference Committee on Placemaking, former Secretary General and currently Special Adviser to CITYNET, an organization of cities and stakeholders of Asia Pacific, Special Adviser to the City of Yokohama's Y-Port Project, Special Adviser to ICLEI, member of the board of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia, Clean Air Asia, St. Louis College, La Union and mentor of Synergeia Foundation, Inc. She is currently also a member of the board of Trustees of the Global Institute Against Trans-National Crimes based in Geneva and Vienna.

She was a Charter Member of Zonta Manila II and now member of Zonta La Union-San Fernando. She was also past president of the Inner Wheel Clubs of the Philippines, Inc, past president of the IWCPI Foundation, Immediate Past President of the Federation of Asia Pacific Women’s Association (FAWA), Treasurer of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs of the Philippines (NFWC), President of the NFWC Foundation, and the project coordinator of Community –Understand and Respect the Environment- the Sea (CURE THE SEA) and the Baroro Watershed Protection Council.